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‘Contraceptive practices’

By Janice P. DreilingE-E guest columnist

(Editor’s note: The following is the first in a series of guest columns to be published by the Examiner-Enterprise on the issue of health care practices in place at Jane Phillips Medical Center, which is owned by St. John Health System, a Catholic organization, based on the hospital’s current policies.)

If you have lived in Bartlesville as long as I have, you know that the local hospital has not always been owned and operated by the Roman Catholic Church. Jane Phillips Hospital opened its doors in 1952. Named for the wife of Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum Company, the local hospital was originally associated with the Episcopal Church.

Today Jane Phillips Medical Center is a member of the St. John Health System that operates St. John Hospital in Tulsa as well as other hospitals in northeast Oklahoma and southeast Kansas.

Many local doctors are employees of Gemini Medical Group, Inc., now doing business as St. John Clinic, both being parts of the St. John Health System.

Presently the doctor employees of Gemini are being asked to sign a contract that includes the following: “Physician shall comply with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services, as approved and amended from time-to-time by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and implemented by the Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa (‘Directives’). While providing services under this Agreement, Physician shall not perform, participate in, promote or condone euthanasia, assisted suicide, direct abortion, direct sterilization or contraceptive practices, except under facts and circumstances where the conduct is permitted by the Directives.”

It is my understanding that the words “contraceptive practices” appear in the contract for the first time this year. In other words, prior contracts did not include the words “contraceptive practices” at the end of the sentence beginning with “Physician shall not perform, participate in, promote or condone…”

The most recent edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services is the fifth edition, published in 2009 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This document can easily be found on-line. The reader is urged to access and study it. Double-spaced, my printout was 43 pages.

Following a preamble and general introduction, the document has six parts. Each part has several pages of text, followed by numbered “Directives.” The rest of this column will focus on Part Four (“Issues in Care for the Beginning of Life”) and Part One (“The Social Responsibility of Catholic Health Care Services”).

As to the concern that doctors in private practice who are employed by Gemini/St. John Clinic will no longer be allowed to prescribe contraceptives to their patients under the terms of their new contract, the following statement appears in the text in Part Four: “The Church cannot approve contraceptive interventions that ‘either in anticipation of the marital act, or in its accomplishment or in the development of its natural consequences, have the purpose, whether as an end or a means, to render procreation impossible.’” (1968 Encyclical Letter On the Regulation of Birth, Pope Paul VI.)

“Directive 52” follows the text in Part Four and speaks for itself. “Directive 52. Catholic health institutions may not promote or condone contraceptive practices but should provide, for married couples and the medical staff who counsel them, instruction both about the Church’s teaching on responsible parenthood and in methods of natural family planning.”

Please note that “natural family planning” means avoidance of the sexual act during a woman’s fertile cycle, also known as the “rhythm method.”

A basic understanding of the English language concludes that the words in the new contract that the doctor agrees not to participate in or promote “contraceptive practices” except under facts and circumstances where the conduct is permitted by the Directives” may seem to allow exceptions until one reads Directive 52 that obviously allows a doctor only to prescribe the “rhythm method” as a means of birth control. In other words, birth control pills and other means of contraception are not allowed.

Part One of the Directives (“The Social Responsibility of Catholic Health Care Services”) includes “Directive 5.” It states: “Catholic health care services must adopt these Directives as policy, require adherence to them within the institution as a condition for medical privileges and employment, and provide appropriate instruction regarding the Directives for administration, medical and nursing staff, and other personnel.”

It is my understanding of state and federal law that faith-based health care organizations may impose their religious beliefs on their employees and the patients they serve. If a patient requests treatment that violates an ethical or religious directive, the faith-based health care organization offers to transfer the patient to another hospital or provider.

In a large metropolitan area, there are options to faith-based health care. But in Bartlesville, America, there is one hospital. And that hospital currently employs many of the doctors in private practice.

Who’s in charge of your health care?

Janice P. Dreiling is a practicing attorney in Bartlesville and a retired 11th Judicial District judge.

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